I wanted to attend a selective a summer program this year, however I only applied to one as there were only a few teachers I could ask for a recommendation from, and didn’t get in. However, I see people on here saying they apply to as many as 8 summer programs. When each of these programs require 2 or more recommendations and have different online portals for submitting them, how do you get enough? Do you simply ask the same teacher or two to write a rec for all of these programs? It’s enough of a favor to ask for one, so doesn’t asking for 5-8 different ones take a huge amount of their time?
You ask 3-4 teachers and use them in different combinations. Some programs ask for one recommendation, some for two. If you applying to the STEM programs you probably need your math and your science teacher. If you take more than one science class, you have more options.
Usually teachers (and college professors, if you ever have this issue again) are willing to write a letter of rec for multiple programs. Typically once they’ve written one, they can reuse it with only minimal modifications. It’s not that much more work, and teachers are usually understanding about it.